Hi Guillaume, kfree just returns pages to a pool, so I doubt you'll have problems there, BUT I would strongly suggest NOT to use IRQ locking on kmalloc/kfree: Plus one more suggestion, IRQ locks disable interrupt lines, so make sure your critical section is short or you'll starve your system. ...... kmalloc() spin_lock_irqsave() ...critical section.... spin_unlock_irqrestore() kfree() Regards, Konstantyn -----Original Message----- From: Guillaume Thouvenin [mailto:guillaume.thouvenin@polymtl.ca] Sent: Friday, May 07, 2004 4:38 AM To: Kernel Newbies Subject: RE: kmalloc within IRQ lock Selon "Prokopenko, Konstantyn" <kproko@analogic.com>: > Well, in theory you can generate dead-lock cituation. kmalloc with > GFP_KERNEL flag in low memory condition > can put "current" user to sleep waiting for swap daemon to free pages. I > think I don't need to explain further what could happen if you have IRQ lock > around it.... It looks like a time bomb :).. Is it the same for kfree? Guillaume -- Kernelnewbies: Help each other learn about the Linux kernel. Archive: http://mail.nl.linux.org/kernelnewbies/ FAQ: http://kernelnewbies.org/faq/ -- Kernelnewbies: Help each other learn about the Linux kernel. Archive: http://mail.nl.linux.org/kernelnewbies/ FAQ: http://kernelnewbies.org/faq/
